Iowa football’s Kaden Wetjen’s returns become key part of success in back half of the season

IOWA CITY — Make the decision in a matter of milliseconds — call for a fair catch or turn on the jets. That’s Kaden Wetjen’s task every Saturday.

Iowa football has found a way to continue a legacy of excelling punt returners. Wetjen, who’s scored three in the first seven games this season, joins the likes of Tim Dwight, Charlie Jones, Micah Hyde and Cooper DeJean, among others, who’ve all found ways to thrust the special teams unit to the forefront every year.

Fans wait on the punt and kickoff returns with baited breath now, because they know Wetjen could have something up his sleeve that can instantly swing momentum in favor of the black and gold.

“It's been fun to watch because he's become an electric playmaker,” special teams coordinator LeVar Woods said. “He's become dominant at what he does. You can feel the crowd anytime he's back there ... All of a sudden you hear the crowd just roar on their feet through a headset and people are talking on that.”

Wetjen’s six touchdowns this season are a career-high — splitting evenly between an offensive touchdown and a special teams touchdown. He recorded his first game-winning score this season, too, against Penn State.

“It was really surreal” Wetjen said ahead of Iowa’s game against Minnesota. “Just pretty awesome.”

The 5-foot-9 graduate falls in the “obsessed” category for studying the game, Woods said. Woods raved about Wetjen’s ability to see the field as blockers create a path, and not second-guessing himself in the process.

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Two key traits Woods looks for when evaluating his punt returners, present and future.

“I think Kaden has got a good mix of both,” Woods said. “It wasn't easy at all, and it hasn't been easy and it's still a work in progress and there's still more he can improve on, but he's playing very confident right now, and again, he's a dangerous weapon back there.”

Wetjen said he’d been itching for an opportunity on the punt return, too, since Big Ten teams started avoiding the returner as much as possible.

But Wetjen’s recent success, including a 50-yard punt return for a touchdown against Minnesota last week, also helps create head coach Kirk Ferentz’s desire for complementary football. The Hawkeyes had all three phases score a touchdown against the Golden Gophers, and Wetjen’s first-career game-winning touchdown was an 8-yard rushing score against Penn State.

“It is important. The improvement thing, that's kind of been our mantra or our theme with our players the last month,” Ferentz said after the Minnesota win. “Let's focus on getting better. I think they have done that.”

Wetjen’s flexibility also extends past the special teams unit, helping out with the running back room a few times this year. He played some running back in high school, so Wetjen could make the adjustments quickly.

It helped with Iowa’s running back room was shortened from injury, but he’s since appeared in the backfield a few more times since the Hawkeye RBs have returned to full strength, too.

“I was familiar with it, and it wasn't anything new,” Wetjen said. “So I mean, just kind of having those conversations and getting them comfortable with me was cool, too.”

In Wetjen’s final four games in a Hawkeye uniform, he’ll be a jack-of-all trades — the same role he’s taken on time and time again. He’s earned the national recognition for his skillset, being named a PWAA first team All-America last year, and he’s just one return for a touchdown away from the most in program history.

Whether teams choose to send the ball Wetjen’s way or not is up to them. Woods knows, however, that Wetjen will seize that chance if they give him that window.

“I think Kaden is in that world, in the obsessed world, and he continues to do that each and every week,” Woods said. “He's surrounded by 10 guys every day that go out there and bust their bust for him, and they love him and they want to get him to the end zone, and you saw that on Saturday.”

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